


Strontium Earth/Vinyl Sky

by Your Mutant Girlfriend (ScrapyardKid)



Series: Mutamorphosis AU [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Animal Death, BAMF Dipper, BAMF mabel, Biopunk, Blood and Gore, Chapter Art, Dystopian Future, Dystopian society, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Mental Health Issues, More humor than I intended, Multi, Mutated Animals/Creatures, Non-Consensual Groping, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Recreational Drug Use, References to Occultism, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Slow Start Storyline/Plot, So much worldbuilding, Supernatural Elements, Worldbuilding, long fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:17:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8465074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScrapyardKid/pseuds/Your%20Mutant%20Girlfriend
Summary: A catastrophic natural disaster, trigger happy countries, and worldwide mass hysteria is all it took to bring an end to the world we knew. Settlements, while connected by trade routes, are mostly isolated and have developed radically different cultures as a result. Dipper and Mabel lived their whole lives in a village called Gravity, whose founders modeled social customs after a wolf style caste system, and held a hatred of technology. Omega ranked, they endured abuse from their fellow residents for years. One day brings an event which is the final straw; grabbing all they can carry, they head north to make a home in Silent Line, a seemingly unpopulated forest. Unbeknownst to them the forest holds answers to many of their questions that were left unanswered for years. They will not find a brave new world out there; but they sure as hell will find a bizarre, uniquely inspiring one instead. 
It is recommended to read the prologue "Losing Colors" for some things to make sense.The story has a slow start, but has a lot planned for it :)





	1. The Final Straw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *headdesk* Holy moly cannoli, I was so excited after getting the prologue out that I kind of just jumped in to write the first chapter of the main story. I apologize for any mistakes, I'm going to be giving this a look over once I get out of zombie phase x__x Anyway, I'll do my best to put warnings at the top if a chapter contains squicky stuff.
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** Description of animal death, vaguely described sterilization, Gravity just being a shitty place to live.

**Year 65 A.G.C.//C.E. Equivalent ????**

 

_Identical eyes met one another, both strapped to individual examining tables._

 

_Where were they? Everything was blurry around the edges, and it was hard to concentrate._

 

_It was cold, cold, and he was so terribly afraid. But afraid of what again?_

 

_He heard muted shuffling to his side, then felt the sting of a syringe in his arm._

 

_Fading in, fading out, suddenly he was outside of his body, watching blurry figures moving around him and his sister._

 

_One of the figures was working a metal rod with a flat end over a fire in the corner of the dimly lit room._

 

_What?_

 

_Pulling the rod back, the figure examined it, nodding seemingly satisfied. They began walking over to his exam table, bringing the flat end to hover over his right shoulder-_

 

_Oh No. No. NonononoNO NOT THAT HE DIDN’T WANT TO REMEMBER-_

 

_He felt the agonizing pain, watched as his skin sizzled and the mark was seared onto his flesh. He was screaming, his sister was screaming, it hurts it hurts it hurts MAKE IT STOP_

 

\---------------------

 

“-pper! DIPPER!” he woke to his sister’s worried face hovering over him. He drew in a shaky breath as he sat up.

 

“Mabel?”

 

“Heya dippin’ dot. Bad dreams again? You were thrashing around there pretty badly.” 

 

He nodded. “Yeah it was…it was about the day after. After the downranking.” he said in a quiet voice. 

 

She visibly tensed at that, briefly reliving the bad memories herself. Shaking her head, she reached over to ruffle his curly locks of brown hair. 

 

“It’s okay Dipper, that time has come and gone. You’re here with me at home, safe and snug in your bed. By the way mister, you should probably get up, it’s past noon.” she said, shoving at him playfully. 

 

He gave a groan at that, and slowly made a move to get out of bed. He stretched, and walked over to the trunk at the foot of his bed which contained his work tools. 

 

“So! I put aside two portions of dried fruit and jerky- one of them your late breakfast, the other I wrapped up for later, since today you’re on scavving duty bro-bro.”

 

He paused his rummaging as he turned to his sister and shot her a glare of mild suspicion.. “...you put together a correct portion size this time, right?”

 

Mabel shifted around, nervousness obvious on her face. “I maaaaaay have packed an extra apple for the road. But that’s it I swear! I’m not losing much by missing out on ONE apple Dipper.”

 

The younger twin let out a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose in mild irritation. “Okay. Look I’ll let it go this time. I appreciate the gesture Mabel, really I do. I know you care about me. But like I’ve been telling you since we were 13, your mining job burns through at least _double_ the amount of calories my foraging does. You need everything you can get, even just a measly apple!” 

 

She rolled her eyes at him and stuck out her tongue. “Ugh, I know Dipper, I’ve gotten that nerdy human biology lecture from you plenty of times. But we’re adults now! I can handle working on an empty stomach every once in a while. Plus the miners are all from laid back Beta families. They share their food with me, and it's been happening more often ever since I rescued their asses from that collapsing tunnel. You may be stuck in height but weight can change, and you need to fill in bro.” 

 

Dipper’s eyebrow twitched at the comment about his height. “Okaaaaaay and conversations officially over. I really need to get my scavving gear ready if I want to get home before midnight today, so kindly exit the premises dear sister.” he said with with slight sarcasm as he gently pushed Mabel toward the door. 

 

“Awww dippin’ sauce! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up the height thing, won’t happen again I swear!” she pouted. “Mkay, sorry, I’ll wait for you downstairs- and you better not fall back asleep!”

 

He shut the door behind her then headed back over to the trunk. He pulled out his survey journal first, and began making a list of what he would need to bring back from the forest that day. Spring was at its peak, so he had a feeling today’s haul would be a large one. 

 

He wasn’t really upset at Mabel’s comment; he really did need to get her out so he could get ready. But he couldn’t deny that deep down, self-consciousness was lightly pricking at him.

 

Having been the Omega family in the village of Gravity since they were 13, the twins had endured a hard life. Their rank meant they had to adhere to a strange set of rules when it came to interaction with other residents in the town and vice versa. One of them was food merchants imposed a limit on how much they could sell to the twins. The amount they were allowed to get would be considered enough food to sustain maybe one person. 

 

As they grew up Dipper had gotten accustomed to long periods of fasting, or eating small meals made from the edible wild plants and fungi he found in the surrounding wilderness and Silent Line. 

 

He had always insisted his sister take a larger portion of the food they had; she was a miner, what he knew from his readings on basic biology, that meant that she would require a large reserve of calories to burn through as she worked. Sure, surveying and foraging plants was strenuous, but most of his week was spent sedentary indoors and couldn’t be compared to the physical requirements of working in a mine. 

 

As a result of this state of constant undernutrition, once the twins had reached adulthood they were both left with drastically different physical builds. If it wasn’t for the identical faces one would have not guessed that they were twins. 

 

Mabel towered at her mother’s height of 5’9. Mining had given her a powerful physique, full of hard muscle, brimming with raw strength. She managed to best Manly Dan of all people at hand wrestling quite often whenever the two went at it. 

 

Dipper on the other hand was left with stunted growth and stood 4 inches shorter than his sister at 5’5. He had managed to build some lean muscle when he hit his late teens, as by then he had discovered a large array of new wild edible things, so his food intake had begun to increase. It still wasn’t anything like his sister’s physique however. He was thin and lithe, and what he lacked in strength he made up for with his incredible speed and agility. 

 

By the time he was an adult, Dipper had learned to see the positives in his structure. His flexibility and smaller stature were perfect for navigating around places, especially in the tightly packed, dense forest of Silent Line. The rare times when both twins scavved together, Mabel would be tripping over and smacking into branches while Dipper easily flitted and jumped about like a cat.

 

He didn’t like that his body was a target for mockery and he couldn’t deny he was self-conscious, but he was learning to make peace with it. However, even though she wouldn’t say it aloud, Mabel made it obvious that she felt guilty and blamed herself for Dipper’s stunted growth. 

 

With a sigh he brought his attention back to the list, and deemed it complete. He pulled out a light satchel from the trunk, a sickle, a scythe, and his plant carrier. He grabbed a book with a six fingered design on the cover, and another one which was marked with three symbols, shoving them both into his satchel. 

 

Quickly throwing some clothes on, he grabbed his things and made his way downstairs. He sat across from Mabel, watching her put together some jewelry as he ate his breakfast-lunch. He could feel Waddles, Mabel’s pet pig, sniffing his feet. 

 

“Hey Mabes, is it alright if I take Waddles out to the woods with me today? It’s white truffle season and they could fetch us a hefty amount of tabs from the traveling merchants.”

 

Mabel perked up at that. “Sure thing bro! It’s been so long since he’s gotten some fresh air, he’ll be so happy. Isn’t that right?” she cooed at the pig, who replied with an oink.

 

Dipper smiled at their exchange, grabbing the food his sister had wrapped, putting it on top of the books in his satchel. 

 

He made his way to the front entrance, grabbing Waddle’s leash which hung on the coat rack; the pig had already scurried over excitedly, having heard the tell-tale jingling of his leash. 

 

After securing the leash and triple checking to make sure he had everything, he bid Mabel goodbye, and set off to Silent Line. 

 

\--------------------------

 

_BAM!_

 

“HA HA! You owe me 15 tabs Manly Dan!” Mabel yelled, pumping her fist up and down.  
The man looked at her in shock, then let out a chortling laugh as he began fishing around his pockets. “Goddamn lass! I should be mad at ya fer’ losing but I actually think I’m proud of ya instead, yer startin’ to catch up to me in wins!” He placed the tabs in her hand. 

 

“Aww, shucks, I only learned how to arm wrestle from the best!” she grinned. 

 

His laughter died slowly as he gazed outside from where they were sitting at the entrance of the mine, giving the overcast sky a weary look. 

 

“Welp, that was fun, but it’s about time I send you and the rest of the crew home, big storm’s supposed to hit soon and we can’t mine for shit with everything flooded and wet.”

 

“Oooh, short work day! Haven’t had one of those in a while. Alright Dan, stay dry and say hi to Wendy for me!” Mabel said as she jumped up from the table and grabbed her bag of mining equipment.

 

“Will do, see ya around lass!” 

 

The eldest twin began making her way home, following the path of uneven stones which led to the village. Halfway down the path she suddenly came to a stop, brow furrowed in thought as she looked towards a square fenced off area slightly outside Gravity’s border. 

 

Biting her lip, she internally debated with herself, until she finally decided to just go through with what she wanted to do. She’d done it plenty of times and hadn’t gotten caught, one more time should be okay. 

 

She detoured to the fenced area, pushing open creaky metal gates. Graves were neatly lined up in rows, many with flowers at the headstones. 

 

Mabel made her way to two specific graves further back, and her face set into a furious scowl as she got closer. 

 

Some _fucking asshole_ had graffitied her parents’ gravestones.

 

Unbelievable. 

 

Brimming with rage, she took calming breaths as she kneeled down and began rummaging through her bag. She pulled out the large square of fabric she used to wrap lunch with, and began to furiously scrub out what turned out to be color chalk on the stones.

 

“Mabel?! What the hell you know you’re not supposed to be here!” 

 

Startled, the twin turned around to find Robbie, one of the overseers of the cemetery. Stricken by fear, hands shaking, she decided to go for the puppy eyes to see if she could get out of this. 

 

“Robbie I’m really sorry! I was in a hurry to get home so I was going to cut through here until I saw the graffiti on my parents’ headstones. I just...felt obligated to clean it up. Please, please don’t tell anyone!” she said as her eyes began to water. 

 

Robbie sighed, rubbing his temples in a sign of irritation. “Mkay, I’m going to pretend to accept the excuse of cutting through, even though y’know, there’s only one entrance to get in here. You’re lucky I was the one who found you and not my cousin. So you’re free to go, just take your things and leave, it’s part of my job to upkeep the graves anyway.” he said as he made shooing motions with his hands.

 

“Thank you, thank you!! I’ll make you something nice to pay you back, promise!” Mabel yelled as she ran through the gate. 

 

The dark haired young man shook his head in exasperation at the woman’s antics, and turned back to finish cleaning the stones. 

 

\-------------------------------

 

Dipper sighed contentedly as he reclined his body against a tree. Waddles was cuddled up at his side, occasionally letting out quiet snores.

 

To his surprise, he had completed his foraging earlier than expected, as it currently was around early evening. Sadly Waddles hadn’t picked up the scent of any white truffles, but he did get everything else on his list, which in his book was a job well done. 

 

He could have started to make his way home, but instead he decided to treat himself to some outdoor reading while there was still daylight. 

 

When Mabel and Dipper had been assigned to the Omega rank at 13, one of the rules was that they had to be given so called “undesirable” work only to be handled by the two of them. They were assigned to the role of forest scavvers; in charge of going into the forest of Silent Line and gathering anything and everything that could prove useful to the village. 

 

The Silent Line was to the north of the village. To get there, one would travel past the village boundary, past the _tame_ surrounding wilderness, then eventually reach a rickety pre-collapse bridge which led directly into the forest. It was named “Silent Line” because the forest was almost completely silent, and many villagers believed it to be a boundary line separating the physical and spiritual worlds.

 

The people of Gravity were absolutely terrified of the forest believing it to be full of vicious mutated creatures, irradiated cannibals, witches, and all sorts of other nightmarish things. Dipper and Mabel knew better than that, but of course they would never divulge their knowledge to the people of Gravity.

 

Sure, the first few trips they were both scared out of their wits. But as they began to spend more time there, they realized that all of those things people said were just tall tales. Mutated animals were present yes, but they were friendly mammals and rodents who occasionally came with a few extra limbs (or heads). Silent Line was a little hard to navigate sure, but it was peaceful and beautiful. At 14, the twins both vowed to never let the village know the forest was safe; knowing how people were like, Silent Line would end up sucked dry for its resources, then razed down to make room for more houses. 

 

Dipper stretched, then reached over to pull out the symbol inscribed book from his satchel. He flipped through the pages quickly, finally landing where he last left off reading. His stomach flipped, smiling as he began reading the continuation of Aureolus’s adventures. 

 

On his 12th birthday, Dipper had awoken to find his father sitting on the floor of his bedroom, smiling gently as he pulled books from an unmarked box he’d never seen until that day. He explained that before he passed away, great uncle Ford had left the set of books behind as a gift, with a note explicitly saying that they were meant to be given to the twins when they turned 12. His dad decided to hand them off to Dipper instead, since Mabel had never been much of a reader. 

 

There were 9 books in total. One was a journal written by great uncle Ford; it held a wealth of information on supernatural creatures and phenomena. Sadly, as his father had explained, the journal had been written in pre-collapse times, which meant there was a high likelihood that most of the creatures described had become either extinct or mutated. 

 

The other 8 books were a series which...well, were both intriguing AND utterly bizarre. 

 

_“The Books of the Sacred Knowledge of Guillermo Aureolus vols. I-VIII, by **SdAKG** ”_

 

It took a while for Dipper to try and classify just what in the hell the _purpose_ of the books were. He eventually settled on classifying them as part grimoire and part biography of Guillermo Aureolus, written by whoever was SdAKG. Well, possibly fictionalized biography; the man was claimed to be an alchemist, and according to the dates chronicling his feats, when the series of books was finished he would have been around 500 years old. 

 

Whether or not the account was real, Dipper was fascinated by the story, and he would find himself flipping back and forth between enjoying the character’s antics or finding him a pompous ass. 

 

The words on the page had started to become hard to read; looking up, Dipper realized that it was almost nighttime. He put his book back, grabbing the rest of his things, and nudged Waddles gently.

 

“Hey buddy, time to get up, Mabel’s probably got dinner waiting for you at home.” 

 

Waddles immediately perked up at the word “dinner” and began to tug Dipper with him the direction of their home.

 

“WOAH, woah, okay we’re going!” he laughed as they both headed back to the house at a brisk pace. 

 

\-----------------------

 

A blood curdling scream rang throughout the house.

 

Eyes snapping open, Dipper was a blur as he bolted off his bed. He stood still blinking the sleepiness away, trying to make sure he was fully aware and not just having a flashback. 

 

Another bout of screaming from downstairs confirmed that this was, in fact, all very real.

 

Heart hammering against his chest, he ripped open his trunk, grabbing his slingshot and a handful of corrosive packs.

 

He walked out of his room, loaded a pack into the pocket, and got in position to shoot as he slowly made his way downstairs.

 

He found the screaming was coming from his sister, who was kneeling at the doorframe of the front entrance that was wide open. She was hunched over, face buried in her hands, and her shoulders shook as she sobbed.

 

“MABEL! What happened?!” Dipper shouted as he retracted his slingshot.

 

His sister didn’t answer; all she did was point outside. 

 

Walking over to take a look at what she was pointing at, he ended up really regretting the decision. 

 

The front area of their house was _drenched_ in red. 

 

A pig’s head morbidly stood staked on a pole; its entrails and limbs beneath it, arranged to spell out _**know your place**_. Taking a closer look, Dipper was horrified to realize that wasn’t just any random pig, _it was Waddles._

 

He grabbed Mabel by the armpits, dragging her away from the door, and promptly slammed it shut.

 

“Oh my god, this is my fault, this is my fault, I should have just gone straight home, why am I so stupid stupid-”

 

“Mabel, Mabel! It’s okay.” Dipper said, voice slightly shaking. He kneeled down and enveloped her in a hug, letting her cry against his shoulder. “Fuck, who the HELL would do this?” 

 

Her sister sniffled, pulling back slightly. “I-I passed by the cemetery yesterday. I noticed Mom and Dad’s gravestones had stuff written on them, so I stayed to clean them but Robbie ran into me while I was there.” she said tearfully. 

 

He frowned at that. “Robbie can be a real jerk, no question about it, but he wouldn’t do something like this. We’ll get to the bottom of it, Wendy knows how to get information out of him.” 

 

She nodded, and they both held onto each other tightly. After long period of silence between the two, Mabel spoke up.

 

“I-I think it’s finally time we use the special right Dipper.”

 

His eyes widened and he leaned back to look up at her. “Holy shit Mabel, are you sure?” 

 

Grimacing, she rubbed at her face in a tired manner. “Yeah. I know all these years I was the one who kept pushing for us to stay here, but honestly I think this is it. This place just keeps getting worse, and we got nothing left to learn from here. We’ve got the survival skills to rough it out. And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll die happy knowing I was free rather than stuck in this ass-backwards place.” 

 

Dipper was left speechless; he rarely heard his sister talk in that manner. 

 

“Alright, well I’m game. We can put the plan in action starting now. But what are we going to do about Waddles?” he asked, wincing slightly when he noticed his sister’s eyes becoming misty again at the mention of him.

 

“I-I’ll take of it. I already had a plan for what I would do with him when he passed on...just didn’t figure I would be doing it so soon. I’ll also tell Manly Dan to pass the message to Wendy and Soos and set up a time to meet; they did promise if we ever left they’d see us off.” 

 

Dipper nodded at her words, and stood up, offering a hand helping Mabel up. 

 

“Alright, I’ll take care of packing our stuff up and write out the property transfer.” he said as he began making his way toward the stairs.

 

Mabel watched her brother disappear upstairs, and let out a shaky sigh. She rolled up her sleeves, and took a few moments to brace herself before going outside to deal with the carnage in front of their house. 

 

\---------------------------

 

There was a sense of deja-vu that loomed over the day like a cloud. Dipper almost felt a sick sense of amusement at the eerie similarities today and the day their parents were murdered had. 

 

Pressure to get things done quickly, the smell of blood, death, an event causing major life changes. Only thing different was the colors. The colors didn’t need to change, since just as he had feared, they had remained dull till this very day. 

 

Both siblings stood near the entrance of the pre-collapse bridge, packed with everything they could carry. Wendy and Soos stood by as well, all four of them watching as a small fire crackled, cremating what was left of the beloved pet pig. 

 

Once the fire died down, Mabel took a small decorative jar and gently scraped the ashes into it. She sealed it tightly, and put it in her front breast pocket. “I decided I’m going to bury him somewhere in Silent Line, it was his favorite place to be after all.” she quietly told the other three.

 

Dipper reached into his back pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper. He went to stand next to his sister, cleared his throat, and faced to address their two friends.

 

“Mabel and I jointly agreed and had this decision planned for a while in the event we ever decided to leave. Soos, you now have Melody and the two kids to look after, but the council has refused your requests to expand the house. So as a farewell gift, we’re transferring ownership of our house to you, since we know you’ll make great use of it for your family.” 

 

Soos’s eyes widened; whooping, he pulled the twins into an almost crushing bear hug. “Thank you so much dudes! This means so much! Aw man, Melody and the kids will be so happy to hear the news.” he said, letting them go.

 

The distinct glow of fireflies began to slowly start to pop up around the four, and they realized that it had already become late evening.

 

Wendy gave a sigh. “Well, it’s getting late. It looks like it’s time for our Mystery Twins to embark on their new adventure.” 

 

“Pffft, you’re making it sound like we’re characters in a bad children’s novel.” Dipper laughed. 

 

The four of them pulled close for a group hug, only pulling back when they were all almost out of breath.

 

“Oh, before you guys leave, I managed to talk to Robbie.” Wendy said. “He actually wanted to come out in person to apologize, but he’s...bedridden for now. Apparently his cousin was the one who had written that stuff on your folks’ graves. Robbie didn’t realize that some of the chalk had rubbed off on his clothes, but his cousin did and he beat him real bad for it. He promised he didn’t say anything about Mabel being at their graves, but that guy is a psycho so he’d probably find any excuse to pull a stunt like what he did.” 

 

Mabel’s expression hardened in fury, and Dipper gripped her arm, trying to keep her calm. 

 

“Don’t lose sleep over it Mabes, I’m going to take care of him, promise. It’ll be my parting gift to you.” Wendy said was she winked at her. 

 

“Alright, give him hell for me Wendy.” 

 

With water eyes, Soos and Wendy gave the siblings one last wave and goodbye, then began trekking back to Gravity. 

 

They both watched their two friends until they became blips in the distance. Dipper turned to face the bridge, looking into Silent Line, admiring the way the fireflies illuminated the madly tangled trees. He felt his sister grab his hand, beginning to gently tug him towards the bridge. 

 

He glanced back to get one last look at the place they had called home their whole lives, then turned to face the forest. 

 

Beneath the bridge in the irradiated stream, an eye watched as the pair entered Silent Line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be doing a trivia corner at the end of every chapter-because I'm a huge fucking nerd and I love to learn new things, I ended up going ham on research for this story, so there's going to be references to a seriously wide range of topics, from science, obscure historical figures, occultism (occultism nerd here), etc. etc. Seriously if you read my stuff be prepared to learn a thing xDD
> 
> Thank you for reading! I know right now stuff is looking vague, but everything will be explained in due time, so buckle up kiddos :D Trivia is below for those interested! 
> 
> **Trivia for Chapter 1:** The title of the story is reference to strontium-90, a radioactive isotope of strontium, which is found in nuclear fallout; vinyl is reference to vinyl chloride, a flammable gas that can cause mutagenic effects on the body.  
>  Dipper's flashback/dream sequence has vaguely implied sterilization (That was what the syringe mentioned was for;I did have a paragraph explaining it in detail but frankly it felt dry and boring so I cut it out). When I tried to imagine humanity applying a wolf style A/B/O social caste system in humans, I saw it going only in horrible ways lmao! But the idea came from the fact that while dynamics in wolf packs can vary, usually the alpha are the only ones allowed to mate; thus I imagined sterilization would be a big thing in a human society like that. It is also an occurrence for omega wolves to leave a pack when the rough treatment becomes too much for the wolf to handle.  
> The title of Aureolus's books was modeled after "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage" (normally just called The Book of Abramelin) a pretty well known book among occultists. I haven't had a chance to buy a copy yet myself, but from what I remember it's kind of a grimoire and kind of a story at the same time.  
> The "packs" Dipper loads into his slingshot were an idea that came from listening to a friend talk about paintballing-i imagined they would make deadly weapons if they could be filled with things like corrosive chemicals, and since dipdop was trained in chemistry I could see him designing slingshot ammo like that. So yeah, they look like paintballs :D  
> As a shoutout to my beloved Fallout series, the currency used is soda can tabs.


	2. Tales of Exploding Cattle, Zoophiles, and Nudists-Oh My.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings set up a camp spot for some much needed rest. Mabel ends up inviting some strangers she met in a hole over for dinner; Seeing their new guests after coming back from forest grocery shopping, Dipper seriously questions his sister's sanity. They're cool though, they got drugs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit 11/12: FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW PICTURES WORK ON THIS THING. Enjoy the goodies at the end! I'll also be uploading all art on my Tumblr so if it doesn't show up (for me it won't show up on my phone but it does on my computer) you've got an alternative to look at them. So far I'm focusing on minimalistic speedsketches, but I have some more developed stuff in progress that I will eventually post (I'm bad at estimating time when it comes to doing illustrations so for now I'll say the fancier stuff will just take a while xD) I have everything tagged, so you can look up "Mutamorphosis AU" to bring it up. It'll bring up any fic updates as well. 
> 
> **Chapter Warnings:** Recreational Drug use, references to zoophilia and cannibalism, post-collapse society being absolutely bonkers.

Setting down the final pieces to the stone circle, Mabel stood up and stretched out her long arms and legs.

 

“Alright bro, got the base part for the campfire done!” she turned around facing the direction where Dipper was crouched down, patting down their sleeping bags.

 

He got up and stretched as well, then headed over to his sister.

 

“Well camp set-up is done then. Only thing we need is firewood, and probably stocking up on some food since we’re starting to run low.” he said.

 

“Call dibs on firewood duty! Not like I can forage anyway, I’d probably end up poisoning us both.” his sister laughed.

 

Dipper chuckled and rolled his eyes, swinging his plant carrier over his shoulder. “Yeah, yeah; Do your thing amazon lady, I’ll be browsing the aisles of nature’s supermarket. Let’s meet back here by twilight.”

 

Mabel watched her brother disappear into the woods while she put on her torso tool belt, securing it tightly. She decided to head the opposite way, and began to clumsily make her way through the uneven layout of Silent Line.

 

The weather was hot today, but the almost ceiling like treetops kept the forest at a cooler, pleasant temperature.

 

The eldest twin traversed the forest diligently, stopping occasionally to chop down and gather any good firewood or other potential campfire material. She managed to find two pieces of flint, which her brother would be happy to see; they only had one piece left, and the thing was almost worn out.

 

After roughly 4 hours-around mid-noon-Mabel stopped to take a break. She sat beneath a shady tree, pulling out wrapped cattail stalks. She made a grimace as she ate.

 

 _Ugh_ , she really hoped her brother would get lucky and find some fruit, the stuff was really gross when not in soup.

 

While she ate, she watched the wildlife dart around. _I wonder if I can remember what names dip-dop gave to some of these animals._

 

Looking towards the upper part of the trees she recognized the fluffy, evenly two tone split chimera squirrel. There were two who seemed to be fighting over an acorn-that or courting, both actions looked kind of the same to Mabel.

 

On a nearby tree, some species of dinav whose name she couldn’t remember watched the two bickering squirrels intently, getting into position to strike.

 

After two or three minutes, the dinav was a blur in the sky, both squirrels now it's unlucky passengers.

 

“Huh. Wonder if dinavs make goo-.”

 

_“HEEEEEEEEEELP!”_

 

A chorus of screams cut Mabel’s musings short.

 

_The fuck?_

 

Mabel got up, craning her head around, trying to figure out where the shouts were coming from.

 

 _"HEEEEEELP! ANYONE!?_  " came the screams again.

 

This time she had managed to roughly pick out the direction of where it was coming from.

 

“WHERE ARE YOU? KEEP YELLING SO I CAN FOLLOW YOUR VOICE!” Mabel shouted back.

 

\---------------------

 

After a good half an hour of tripping on roots and getting caught on tree branches, the older twin finally found the source of the shouting.

 

Judging their clothing that covered them from head to toe and the huge, heavy packs strapped to their backs, it was a group of merchants. They were a mess of tangled limbs and clothing inside a hole which seemed to have recently caved in.

 

One of the merchants spoke up with a muffled, distinctly female voice.

 

“Well hey there buddy! Think you can give us a lift outta this hole? We’ll make it worth your while if you do!”

 

Mabel, holding back laughter, nodded. “Will do! No payment needed-I’ve fallen through the soft spots around here so many times with no help around, I know what it feels like.” giving a slight shiver as she reminisced.

 

“You got some rope right?” piped up a deep male voice this time.

 

“Pffft! I don’t need no rope!” She reached back and pulled out her pickaxe, then kneeled down. “Here-grab onto the metal part like a handle, and I’ll pull you guys up one by one!”

 

There was silence for a moment, then the female merchant cleared her throat.

 

“Uhm ooookay. I’ll give you points for the clever use of a mining tool, but the other three idiots with me are pretty big guys; you may be able to pull out _me_ out, but I doubt you could lug these guys out.” she said.

 

Mabel rolled her eyes, then playfully blew back a raspberry. “Alright if you don’t believe I can do it, let’s bet on it. I prove I can pull ya’ll up no problem, you owe me 10 tabs each. If I fail, 40 tabs from me, and these two pieces of flint I found.”

 

The female merchant let out a bellowing laugh, making the other three groan in annoyance at her loudness. “Alright girlie, I like you! It’s a bet!”

 

The twin grinned widely. She rolled her shoulders, then got the pickaxe into position for the first person.

 

...And that’s how the four unlucky merchants not only found themselves stuck in a hole for 3 hours, they also each ended up leaving said hole 10 tabs shorter.

 

\---------------------

 

Dipper loved his sister more than anything in the world. Really, he did.

 

But he swore one of these days her indiscriminate friendliness would get them both killed.

 

The “forest grocery shopping” as he jokingly called it had gone smoothly, for the most part. He _did_ end up getting into a bit of a scuffle with a group of smoosums over some chestnuts, but they dispersed after a few hits from his slingshot, and all he was left with were some lightly scratched arms.

 

He’d gotten one hell of a haul; being this deep in Silent Line, edible things were plentiful. His plant carrier was almost bursting with cattails, wild carrot, wild onion, burdock, purslane, and even lotus roots. He managed to score several huge handfuls of berries, which Mabel would be thrilled to see.

 

He really did not expect to find they now had dinner guests as he came to the campsite.

 

“Uh, Mabel? A word?” one eyebrow raised, he said to his sister as soon as he saw one of the four strangers poking and prodding at their campfire base.

 

“Sure thing broski. Be right back guys!”

 

As soon as she was within reach, he grabbed his sister and yanked her behind some trees for privacy.

 

“Bro, before you freak out, I swear they’re cool! They’re traveling merchants-well apparently they like to be called ‘nomants’-anyway, they fell through one of those patches of unsteady ground and got caved in for like 3 hours! I got them out, and told me they’d do some on the road bartering in exchange for letting them stay at our camp.” she said.

 

Frowning, Dipper crossed his arms and looked back at the group. “Mabel, I don’t know if I like this idea. I’ve dealt with them many times, but back then I was surrounded by other people; we’re vulnerable out here if they have other intentions.”

 

His sister rolled her eyes and patted him on the shoulder. “Dipper, we’ll be fine. Both of us together are a force to be reckoned with; I’m confident if something happens, we can take them all down easily. Especially with those knock out packs you have.”

 

Pausing for a moment, a huge grin suddenly made its way into his sister’s face. “Plus, now that I think about it, the leader has been really chatty so far. I’m sure if you ask nicely they’ll tell us information about what places are like outside Gravity and Silent Line.”

 

Any apprehension Dipper had immediately left him once he thought about the prospect of gathering knowledge on the outside world.

 

“Goddamn it, alright, you got me with that one Mabes. They can stay, just make sure to keep vigilant, alright? I’ll go start the-”

 

“AW YEAAAAH FIRE AHOY!” a loud, yet muffled shout cut Dipper off.

 

Both twins stepped back into the camp, finding the female nomant doing a little jig around the now roaring campfire, her three companions laughing hysterically at her antics.

 

“Holy crap! How did you get the fire that big in such little time?!” Mabel said in awe.

 

The nomant held out two items she had gripped in her hands triumphantly. “With my little friends blowtorch and ethanol!”

 

The twins looked at each other in confusion, then back at the items in her hands.

 

“I’m familiar with ethanol, but what the heck is a blowtorch?” Dipper asked.

 

She held up the item, lighting it to demonstrate its use. “This baby right here! Kerosene goes in, fire comes out. Don’t ask me about the technical details, I flunked chemistry.” she laughed.

 

The nomant snuffed out the torch, then threw the items on top of a large bag.

 

Looking back at the twins, she cocked her head in Dipper’s direction, seemingly thinking.

 

“OH SHIT! Is that you Book Reaper? I thought you looked familiar!”

 

Dipper startled at the the sudden shift in her voice. Brow furrowed, he sifted through his mental archives, trying to remember who it was that had called him that.

 

“Wait, Anastasia?”

 

“Ding ding ding! We got a winner!”

 

The twin laughed; she hadn’t changed a bit.

 

“Sorry, I didn’t recognize you, you guys have completely different uniforms now! All identical too.” he said.

 

“Ugh yeah, one of the bosses decided on the change; he said if we wanted to make a name for ourselves we should have identical, recognizable uniforms to separate ourselves from other nomant groups.” she huffed.

 

Anastasia gestured towards the other three behind her. “Good thing is my crew is still the same! Big boy Jecamiah, goofy Eliakim, and the darling Camon.”

 

Mabel watched the exchange between the two with interest. Her eyes suddenly widened, remembering something.

 

“Aw, Dipper! This is the group you said were your favorite when they came into town! By the way, my brother used to have a _massive_ crush on you Jecamiah.” Mabel laughed.

 

 _”Mabel!”_ he yelled, turning bright red.

 

Jecamiah let out a bellowing laugh. “Well damn, of course! Who can resist arms like these?” He said, flexing both arms to show the bulging muscles beneath his clothing.

 

Dipper somehow managed to turn redder at that, Mabel giving out a wolf whistle while everyone else laughed. “Okay. Welp, fire has been started, which means I gotta start making dinner! Conversation oooooooover.” he said, making a beeline toward one of his bags, beginning to furiously pull out cooking equipment.

 

Mabel, grabbing a small branch on the ground, went over to the group sitting near the fire. “Alright! Two questions: Are you guys literate, and if so, who’s willing to play some rounds of hangman while Dipper cooks?”

 

\---------------------

 

Thrilled to discover all the nomants could read and write, the five of them went at it while Dipper made soup from the things he had gathered from the forest that day. While he wasn’t letting his guard down completely, he did find some relief in the fact that the nomant group weren’t really complete strangers. Plus it was exciting getting to see all the gizmos they had; electricity and advanced tech were banned in Gravity. Before Grandpa Shermie had passed away, he told both siblings plenty of stories about what life was like before the collapse, and the wonders of tech.

 

Camon had pulled out a lantern once it became hard to read the writing on the ground. It had a crank which he briskly turned for a while, pressing something at the bottom of it when he was done; it emitted a bright, clean light. Mabel stared in awe at it, first time seeing a lantern that didn’t use fire. Camon told them they could keep it as a thanks, and Dipper let out a very unmanly squeal at the idea of getting the chance to examine it closely later.

 

Before he had finished cooking dinner, Dipper made sure to stash away the berries, knowing that his sister would not want to share them; he’d give them to her tomorrow after their guests left.

 

Once dinner was served the group ate in amicable silence, occasional praises of Dipper’s cooking breaking through it every so often, the comments making him flush. The twins found the nomants customs a little strange; they had switched the plague doctor gas masks for cloth masks with loose openings at the bottom to eat. Anastasia said their boss required their faces to stay anonymous, citing some sort of safety precaution.

 

Dinner complete, the younger twin collected everyone’s bowls to wash them. Jecamiah offered to help him, bringing over a bottle of the ethanol Anastasia had used earlier to light the fire. Dipper hesitated at first but then gave in. The source he had been using for water, while not too far, would be difficult to find in the nighttime darkness.

 

While he and the bulky nomant washed the bowls, he caught the distinct smell of cigarettes wafting through the air. _Damn_ it’d been a while since he’d indulged himself. Hopefully the group would be willing to share or barter for some.

 

Once done, bowls put away, the two came back and joined the others, now sitting in a circle.

 

“There ya are! Wanted to wait for you before I broke these bad boys out; your sister tells me you are quite the fiend for this lil’ shrub.” Eliakim said, holding up a tightly wrapped bundle of plants, green leaves with reddish stems.

 

Dipper’s mouth watered at the sight. “You guys have khat? How’d you get your hands on that? It only grows in arid places-does your route go through the middle-south?”

 

Eliakim chuckled. “Nah, we only stick to the Long Coast areas and the Cenilands. There’s lots of places in the Coast that grow the stuff in greenhouses; once it sets off, it’s really easy to grow in bulk. Most of those places were founded by pre-collapse stoner types; they left their descendants all sorts of exotic shit you normally wouldn’t find in this part of the world.”

 

Okay; now Dipper had to admit he was _really_ happy Mabel had found these people and brought them back.

 

“So! The lovely girlie over here was telling me you wanted to hear a bit about the outside world?” Anastasia asked, putting out her cigarette on the metal bowl next to her. Dipper nodded fervently.

 

“Good! I like that. Humans nowadays are so terrified and ignorant; I rarely see curiosity like yours Book Reaper. Now just a few things,” she paused to light herself another cigarette, handing the pack to Camon, letting it make its way around the circle.

 

Inhaling deeply, she then let out a large cloud of smoke. “We won’t have as much time as I’d like to talk since we need to get back on the road early and it’s already getting pretty late. We also have limits on what we can talk about; nothing personal, boss is just a really paranoid guy. The idea the four of us have in mind is we tell you our personal favorite stories from the places we’ve visited. You’re free to smoke and chew khat to your heart's content; helping us out was a really kind thing to do, so you’ve earned it. What do you say?”

 

“That sounds great!” Dipper said. “I do have one request however. I’m assuming you must have some sort of current map to travel; would you allow me to draw a copy of it in my journal?”

 

“I got you.” Jecamiah said. He got up and rummaged around one of the bags, finally pulling out a metal tube. He sat back down next to the younger twin, unscrewed the cap and pulled out the map from the tube.

 

Smiling, the twin gave a thanks as he went to gather his writing materials, coming back to happily notice a bundle of khat and three cigarettes waiting for him.

 

Mabel gave a muffled whoop through a huge mouthful of khat. “Alright! Who’s going first?”

 

\---------------------

 

So far, this had been probably one of the best nights of his life. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had laughed so much, or actually even felt real happiness. Even through the darkness, he noticed how the usually dull colors changed to become vibrant.

 

...More than likely it was the mass quantities of khat he had been chewing and all the tobacco that was doing that; but hey, he’ll take what he got.

 

Eliakim had gone first, and out of the four his story was probably the most normal. He chose to tell the twins about his favorite trading spot on their route, a place called the Winple Commune. The place was to the southeast in the Cenilands. The founders of the place had been a group of biologists and engineers, and as such was one of the more advanced post-collapse places. Their society was egalitarian and almost religiously devoted to the pursuit of education.

 

They found ways of turning the volcanic ash which blanketed the area into building materials. The residential buildings were all connected, yet everyone had their own individual private living space, even the children. The most amazing thing about the place was that every single resident had some form of cybernetic implants. Eliakim told of a child who had shown him his “net-familiar”- a sentient, artificial intelligence program that came in a small chip that was implanted in the wrist when one turned 13. The chip could project a hologram of the net-familiar, usually coming in the form of colorful animals or fairytale creatures. They would perform nanny like duties and keep the child out of harm.

 

Camon had gone after him; he talked about one of the greenhouse towns Eliakim had mentioned earlier when talking about where khat was grown. This specific one was called Des Nudo Coast. The place was beautiful, and the residents were probably the most skilled growers in the Long Coast. However, they were also utterly bizarre, and the only reason they had kept them on their trade route was because the drugs they grew were so good. The people there wore no clothes, used no fabric or textiles of any kind; while Camon couldn’t care less, what was disturbing was the reasoning behind it. The residents believed that clothing and anything related to it were sentient extraterrestrials who had come to Earth with the intent of turning humans into pets. Camon said it was a fight to get to the marketplace there every time, since people would swarm them trying to rip their clothes off or claiming they were working for the aliens.

 

Anastasia told the most disturbing story out of the four. She had taken Dipper’s finished map copy and pointed to a spot marked with a bold X in between Long Coast and the Cenilands called Twin Hills. She said the first (and only) time they had gone there, they’d had to stay overnight because of a bad ash storm. The town was small, around 10 families at most. The residents were very friendly, and appeared to be huge animal lovers; everyone had pets of all kind of species, and the pride of the town was the animal sanctuary in the center.

 

After heading to bed, Eliakim had awoken them several hours later. Apparently, he had an insanely acute sense of smell, because he had told them that he had smelled _human_ blood when he went outside to take a nighttime smoke break. Using his nose, the group had followed him down to the animal sanctuary, where a party seemed to be in process. Anastasia did not sugar coat what they had seen inside: They were “cannibals and animal fuckers.” as she said. They managed to get out of the town unscarred, well, just physically that is.

 

By the time Jecamiah’s turn came around, everyone was stoned out of their gourd. The twins even managed to give a cackle at Anastasia’s story, fucked up as it was.

 

Jecamiah didn’t tell of a place, but of a near-death experience he had with a group of blynows. During a short solo trip, he’d strayed off path when he ran into a gang of raider-types trying to rob him. After several hours of running around dodging bullets, he finally managed to take them all out, but in the process ended up utterly lost. As he tried to make his way back to a familiar place, he had noticed a group grazing blynows; a common sight in the area. What caught him off guard was when one of them stopped its grazing, lifting its head to shout “MOO! MOO I SAY!”its fellow brethren answering back the same way.

 

He had let out a loud string of swearing when he saw that, and in doing so ended up making himself a target. The blynows had charged at him, screaming _”HE KNOWS TOO MUCH!”_. One of them had ran past him, running into a tree in the process, and proceeded to explode into chunks. He managed to survive by climbing up a cliff, the herd of blynows exploding when they made contact with the hard surface at the bottom.

 

Jecamiah swore up and down that this had really happened as the entire group burst into hysterical laughter; Mabel had tears running down her face and Dipper was flat on the ground, pounding his fist into the dirt as he cackled.

 

Dipper wasn’t sure if he believed him completely; but from what he had heard about the other places tonight, maybe it seemed like anything could be possible.

 

\---------------------

 

The next morning, the two parties faced each other, both packed and ready to head their separate ways. As parting gifts, the four gave the twins a generous batch of khat, along with a carton of well preserved cigarettes. Anastasia gave Mabel her blowtorch, which apparently she’d been giving the sparkle eyes to the entire night. The twin had squealed in joy then slipped one of her handmade bracelets onto nomant’s glove covered wrist in return.

 

God, Dipper really hoped his sister wouldn’t end up setting any of their stuff on fire with that thing.

 

“Uhm, hey guys? Before we part ways, is it okay if I take a picture of the two of you? I like to document any interesting people we meet on the road.” Camon shyly piped up.

 

Mabel squished her cheeks in excitement. “Oh my gosh! Yes that is totally okay! So cool, I’ve never had my picture taken!”

 

Dipper nodded, looking over at the polaroid camera Camon had pulled out. “So...I’ve heard of cameras but I’m not sure what one is supposed to do to get their picture taken?” he said

 

“It’s real easy! Just stand in a relaxed, amiable pose. I’ll be aiming the camera, and before I take the picture I’ll let you both know when to smile.”

 

The twins got into position, Mabel putting her arm around Dipper’s shoulder, him putting an arm around her waist. “How’s this?” they said simultaneously.

 

“Perfect! Alright, 3, 2, 1, gimme a nice big smile!” both of them gave large goofy grins, and a flash went off a moment later.

 

The camera spit out the picture a moment later, Camon grabbing it to gently fan it back and forth. “Alright, it’s coming up, wanna see?” he asked the twins.

 

They both smiled warmly as they looked at their first picture ever taken.

 

“Thanks guys; for the fun night and for showing us all this stuff.” Dipper said, giving a soft sincere smile.

 

“No problem man. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again; we have to go through Silent Line to get back home, so in a couple of months we’ll be in the area again. By then I’m expecting ya’ll to have built a castle with your sister’s stamina.” Anastasia chuckled.

 

The twins gave matching waves of goodbye, then turned to continue their trek to get to the deeper part of the woods. For a short while, they heard what sounded like Jecamiah singing in the distance.

 

 _We’ll meet again_  
_Don’t know where_  
_Don’t know when_  
_But I know we’ll meet again_  
_Some sunny day…_

 

\---------------------

 

“Man those kids are sweethearts. I’m so glad they’re still alive; the bosses are gonna flip when they see the picture you took.”

 

\---------------------  
BEHOLD! The nomant map; this one is Anastasia's, evidenced by the massive amount of snark all over it. The spread of the volcanic ash is based on multiple simulations I looked up online. 

I've also posted it on Tumblr; it's a little more legible there, but I'll try to write down some of the parts which look a little hard to see:

Written below Canada-"Probably still in better shape than the US" 

Washington state was scratched to Ashington state, with the comment "Get it? Haha!"

California is scratched out to forni(cate)

Beneath Oregon: "What's that spell?" The lines connecting the letters together spell "goner"

Along the coast: "Tasty irradiated water, yummy. 15+ Gy"- While most fiction still uses the unit rads when dealing with absorbed dose of radiation in matter, the one that is used IRL is Gy or Gray (Named after Louis Harold Gray, he did something with X-ray measurements and observing the effects of radium on living tissue) According to the ARS (Acute Radiation Syndrome) absorbed dose chart, 8-30 Gy has a 100% mortality rate with even with treatment. Don't worry though, the folks living along the coast already have developed filters and water purifiers to get the nasty isotopes out, although swimming is out of the question. 

Around Arizona- "Bar. Srsly it's a bar in the middle of nowhere. Good hooch."

Albuquerque- "BIG city. Decent people."

The Choke- "Oxygen Tank Required"

Cenilands- "Gas Mask Required"

Long Coast- "Clean air thank God!! Keep a Geiger counter on hand tho." 

 

 

 

A/N: I've occasionally mentioned Dipper has a journal of his own; I've decided to designate the information below as being entries in his journal, since while his specialty is botany, he would certainly try to catalogue everything and anything he would run into. Also I love to add off screen supplementary material, so for those of you who feel the same, please enjoy! And just like the trivia section, you can skip over this if you find it boring xD

 

 Chimera squirrel ( _Tamiasciurus duocolos_ Latin duocolos= two colors): Descendant of the Douglas squirrel, which apparently was the most common species of squirrel in the Pacific US. Nothing special about them besides the two tone coat; just like most of the other animals in Silent Line, it isn't uncommon to see some with extra limbs, heads, or patches of missing fur. Quite friendly unlike smoosums, they flock to Mabel since she's always feeding them. They're also a one of a dinav's favorite meals.   (A/N:The coat was inspired by the famous "chimera" cat Venus, whose face is evenly split into two colors.) 

Dinav ( _Class Avesaur_ combination=aves+dinosaur. Dinav= dinosaur+avian): Group of animals which I assume began to pop up after The Great Collapse. My hypothesis is that the scarcity of food (volcanic winter) and the cocktail of radiation, chemicals, and volcanic ash caused a rapid evolution/de-evolution among the former class  _Aves_ (birds). They regained a multitude of their ancestral dinosaur traits to survive the new environment. Human hunting and the carnivorous nature of dinavs was probably the cause of bird's' extinction. They're not picky eaters when it comes to meat, and will eat fish, land animals, and insects. They are **extremely** intelligent, I believe they are close to or even on the same level with human cognitive capabilities. They definitely self-aware- I approached one once in the forest and held up a mirror to it; once it saw it, it flew down and began to preen itself, using the mirror to find areas which it had missed. It even chirped and gestured at me to move the mirror around to get all the angles; definitely one of my favorite experiences in Silent Line. 

 _Update_ : One of the new merchants in town has a dinav companion. When I approached her to ask about it, she was very happy to give me a demonstration of their intellect. Dinavs can learn to understand human language; she asked it to perform certain tasks or move to certain places, all without dumbing down her words. Apparently because they possess opposable thumbs, they can be taught to write for even better human-to-animal communication, but they can only learn the skill if taught from a hatchling. Her husband taught writing to a baby dinav he'd found abandoned near a road. They're quite popular and sought out in the outside world as pets, but finding one bonded to a human is rare. The dinavs find the idea of being a pet highly offensive. If one wishes to form a bond, they must approach these creatures as equals. Basically, same thing as trying to make a new friend; you need to get to know the person first. Dinavs have their own unique personalities so once again just like with humans, the first attempt might not be successful if your personalities clash. The merchant told me that others have a hard time seeing an animal as a "person" and many try to forcefully cage them as pets. Thankfully, with how smart they are they tend to easily escape their captors. Hmmm, seems like dinavs are actually a lot smarter than most people nowadays. (A/N: The coloration for the dinav below is based on the Western Meadowlark, Oregon's state bird.) 

Blynow ( _Bos strages_ Latin strages=debris/collapse/carnage. Blynow= blind+cow): Bizarre looking creatures, descendants of pre-collapse cows. No eyes, however they do display indentations of eye sockets. What they lack in sight, they make up for with their excellent hearing, sense of smell, and antenna like protrusions from their ears. 6 nostrils, and their nose has feelers like their ears. The large ears don't leave much room for horns; they instead developed to grow from the shoulder area, and when they charge they use one of their shoulder horns to slam into their target. Despite their...uh.... ~~horrifying~~ unique appearance, they're very sweet animals. They're better than pigs at truffle hunting, too bad they're expensive to get. 

Smoosum ( _Didelphis glaber_ Latin glaber=hairless. Smoosum=smooth+opossum): **I HATE THESE THINGS**. The critters in Silent Line don't have a fear of humans since barely anyone goes through there, and thankfully all of them are friendly,  **EXCEPT FOR THESE FUCKERS**. If I run into them, they always try to steal whatever I've collected. Even when I share some with them, they still attack (I'm assuming they just want the whole haul). Thankfully they're small and at worst leave shallow scratches or bites. They're still annoying. And really ugly. I saw a picture of the pre-collapse opossums they were so fluffy and adorable looking. Just one of many, many things the collapse ruined. 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to mention last chapter that reading the trivia corner is completely optional, it's just there for fun! But before I forget, I'll say this: No, Jecamiah is not Bill, nomant is slang for "nomadic merchant", and the four nomant's names all have meanings related to rebirth or resurrection. Keep that fact in mind for later. 
> 
> **Trivia for Chapter 2:** The appearance of Silent Line is meant to look like the Aokigahara forest. It has an unpleasant reputation since it is a popular spot to commit suicide. But it's actually quite beautiful with a unique look to it since it's at the bottom of Mt. Fuji; the ground beneath it is volcanic rock. If you wanna get a feel for what the terrain the twins are traveling through is like, I recommend looking up Aokigahara videos on Youtube. If you're sensitive I'd stay wary however, since a lot of them tend to focus more on finding corpses rather than the beauty of the forest.  
>  Cattails are fucking AMAZING survival plants. The roots, tips, and white bottom stalk are edible and rich in vitamins; the "tail" part is fluffy inside, can be used for insulation, absorption, and tinder; I had a friend growing up who said there's a way to turn them into torches too. The plants in Dipper's haul are also RL edible wild plants.  
> The animals mentioned in this chapter are all post-collapse mutations. **Edit 11/20:** Added information on the animals via writing and drawing them as part of Dipper's journal :)  
>  I'm Latina so expect gratuitous uses of Spanish throughout the story lol. "Des Nudo Coast"= the word "desnudo" which means naked. "Ceniland"= contains part of the word "ceniza" which means ash, so ashlands. Which is also a Morrowind reference. The name Twin Hills was inspired by Twin Peaks.  
> Culture of the places talked about- Des Nudo Coast is very obviously inspired by Kill la Kill.  
> Winple Commune I made; it was taken and modified from an original short story I have planned for the future. "Winple" comes from the words "Windows" and "Apple", I thought it fitting for such a tech loving community.  
> Twin Hills was inspired by Fallout 3's Andale, the friendly town of incestuous cannibals.  
> The story Jecamiah tells is a reference to special encounters in Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. In Fallout 1 there is an event you can trigger with high Luck; while traveling through the map, you'll see a herd of brahmin, and one of them will talk with "Moo, I say!" there's a minor character who also references he heard talking brahmin say that. For Fallout 2, one of the map encounters will be again with a herd of brahmin, only this time they charge at you and explode on contact xD


	3. A Home in the Meadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several months have gone by, and Dipper and Mabel's journey has taken them through parts of Silent Line which they hadn't explored before. They discover a strange part of the forest which they then decide to make home. We get a look into the workings of Dipper's mind, and another scene of what life was like in Gravity. We also find out something surprising about that fun group of nomants we met earlier...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sings* Things are gonna get weird tralala
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** Dream/flashback non-consensual groping, brief mild violence. Referenced drug use. Lots and lots of dialogue for this one, sorry guys D:

_There was always an ache in his stomach. Head constantly throbbing; the world out of focus. Mental games of play pretend made existance a little easier to handle. The others knew his sister as the childish one, him as the mature one. He had a feeling that out of the two, he was really the one who was the child._

 

_There were times when the aches were so bad he wanted to cry. So he imagined himself as Buddha, one of the characters he’d read about in one of his dad’s books. He wasn’t starving; he was fasting, working to ascend into enlightenment by abstaining from the worldly needs of his body. From his botany texts he’d memorized, he sought out the elusive khat. Not very Buddha-like to consume drugs, but it helped ease the stomach pain and kept the fog out of his head._

 

_There were times where he was needed to fulfill his role of being the clear headed, logical one. It was hard to do; mild depression was the background radiation of his life and social anxiety was an intangible prison which constricted him. For this, his pretend game of choice was the role of a machine. Like the androids and automatons he’d read about in sci-fi novels. He’d will himself to become detached, unfeeling; calculating, only focusing on the need to fulfill the purpose for which he was programmed for._

 

_“Well, well if it isn’t little Dipper. Surprised to see the delicate flower outta bed; you run outta tears to cry with you weak little shit?” the comment came from Ghost Eyes; part of the Alpha bully duo with Gideon._

 

 _Begrudgingly, Dipper performed the mandatory greeting done by those in the Omega rank when being addressed by others; he got down on one of his knees, bowing his head low, before standing back up._

 

_”If you’ll be so kind as to excuse me sir, I’m on my way to perform my duties in Silent Line.” he said in a flat tone. Fucking stupid it was, having to polite talk to these assholes, especially having to call another teenager “sir”._

 

_Gideon stepped forward this time. “Aw, Pines, c’mon don’t be like that. Ghost Eyes here’s just been worried about your health is all; we both were.” he kept stepping forward, stopping once he was inches away from Dipper’s face._

 

_”After all, we don’t want our favorite play toy to go breakin’ on us.” he chuckled darkly. The twin did not like this one bit. Gideon never got this close to him, he would normally actively avoid doing so._

 

_He put his arm around Dipper’s waist, pulling his body flush against him. He took his other hand and tilted his chin to force him to look up at his face. “Y’know, it’s a shame your sister’s grown up to look more like Manly Dan than a woman; I was really hoping to take her as my concubine. Don’t get me wrong, I can swing either way, but I like my partners to be...a little soft around the edges. After I have kids with that Northwest girl I sure as hell won’t be touching her again; she ain’t my type.” he paused, moving both hands down to grope at Dipper’s ass._

 

_Oh no, no he did NOT like where this was going._

 

_”Now you m’boy, gotta say that lack of food done good for you. Ya looked a bit gangly when we were kids, but you’ve filled in a lil’ yet stayed lookin’ so soft an’ pretty.” he leaned down to lick and nibble at Dipper’s neck, one of his hands on the move again, this time groping Dipper by the crotch. “Yeah, yeah yer perfect little Dipper. I’m taking you as my concubine starting today.”_

 

_Dipper’s instincts kicked in with the intensity of a bomb. He felt himself slip into his machine play role; he kneed Gideon in the stomach. While down, he watched himself as he pulled out his slingshot and a handful of packs filled with a formula he’d recently come up with. Ground rose hips, cowage seed pods, urushiol, powdered fig leaves, pure high grade mint essential oil._

 

_His shots were quick. He used up ten of them, five each hitting Gideon and Ghost Eyes around their uncovered legs and arms, and open necklines. When he came back to first person view, he watched in cold satisfaction as the two men lied on the ground, screaming in pain from the irritant and burn-inducing chemicals._

 

 _”I will NEVER be you or anybody else’s fucking sex toy. And if I ever, EVER hear you talk that way about my sister again, I’ll shoot you with corrosive ammo. Since you’re stupid, let me clarify the meaning of ‘corrosive’ in this context: made up of chemicals that will burn and eat away at your flesh so badly your ugly mug will be left unrecognizable, IF you don’t die.”_

 

_”Dippeeeeeeer, dipdop, c’mon it’s time to get going!” he startled as his sister suddenly appeared beside him. Wait, how the hell?_

 

_”Dippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!”_

 

\-------------------

 

Something heavy landed on his stomach knocking the air out of him, wrenching him from his dream. “ **OW!** Mabel what the hell?!” he yelled, glaring at his sister with a still sleepy expression on his face.. 

 

She was sitting on top of his stomach, looking incredibly pleased with herself. “Sorry bro, had been trying to wake you up for a good five minutes; I had to bring out the big guns when that didn’t work.” she laughed, getting off her brother’s stomach. 

 

“So brother dearest! Slept in again, it’s around noon”-Dipper groaned at that-”I woke up a few hours ago and decided to scout a bit further ahead since I was bored, aaaaand I believe I’ve found a good place to finally settle down.”

 

Dipper perked up at that. “Really? Damn I hope you’re right; I love exploring the woods, but after months of going at this I’m kind of actually looking forward to just staying somewhere for longer than a day.” he stood up, immediately starting to pack up the things around his sleeping area.

 

“Yup! I will say that the place is...a little strange. You’ll see what I mean when we get there; it’s about an hour walk, so when we get there we’ll have plenty of time to look around, and if you like it I’ve saved enough materials to start making a foundation.” she said.

 

He felt a bit apprehensive about the place being “strange” but decided to keep that to himself. Might as well take a look at it before making any judgements.

 

Packed up and ready, Dipper followed his sister as she led them to their potential new home. The hour passed by quickly, the two of them playing a game of I spy as they walked.

 

“Alright! We’re here! Just past these bushes.” Mabel disappeared as she went through the thick foliage, Dipper following afterwards.

 

 _Wow._ His sister wasn’t kidding when she said the place was strange. 

 

It was like stepping into a completely different world; instead of twisting, packed trees and uneven terrain, the ground was flat, covered in an assortment of flora as far as the eye could see. A meadow, and at the center of it stood proudly an enormous pine tree. It was beautiful.

 

“Wow.” was all Dipper was able to say.

 

“Yup. Who knew a place like this existed in Silent Line right? I got to survey a bit of the place since I wanted to see how far it expands, and it turns out that the meadow laid out in a really big circle. I think it’s perfect; flat ground for easy home building, yet we’re still close to all the resources the forest has.” she said.

 

“Mabel this is a great find! Man I can’t wait to catalogue all these plants, most of them look unfamiliar to me.” Dipper said excitedly. 

 

“Mhm, I knew it would cater to your plant nerd heart. Now when I said this place was strange, I actually wasn’t talking so much about the meadow, but that tree in the center. Here, let me show you.” he followed after his sister, savoring the feeling of walking on even ground for the first time in months. 

 

When they reached the tree, he immediately saw what was off about it. There was a lightly rusted, dusty door embedded into the trunk. It was a two part system-a metal set of doors which parted in the middle, and a scissor gate which was laid over it. 

 

Now where was it that he had seen an entrance like that before?

 

His sister already had the answer for him. “You know what this is dipdop? It’s a lift. Some of the mines in Gravity have deeper levels which we could only reach by taking one of these babies down.” 

 

Dipper looked closely at it, noticing that parts of it had graffiti. He was floored when he realized that it wasn’t just any old graffiti, they were symbols he’d learned about from Ford’s journal and SdAKG’s biography of Aureolus. 

 

“Mabel, this lift is covered in alchemical symbols.” He said in awe. Why the heck would these symbols be written _here_ of all places? Actually the real question is why was there even a _lift_ inside of a tree?

 

She tilted her head with a thoughtful look. “Alchemical? Isn’t that the magic chemistry thing that book character you’re in love with works with?” 

 

Dipper sputtered and turned bright red. “ _Mabel!_ ” she burst out laughing at how obvious her brother was, and gave him a good-natured thump on the back. “Sorry bro, you keep denying it but it’s pretty obvious you’re enamoured with the guy. No judgement though! After all, there will always be a part of my heart claimed by Mr. Cullen.” she sighed dreamily. 

 

The younger twin pinched the bridge of his nose. He really regretted ever giving her that set of vampire books. He considered all books and printed materials worthy of saving, but he made an exception for that infernal series. 

 

“Yeah, yeah whatever. And yes; the symbols are the ones from that ‘magic chemistry’ he used, and they were in Ford’s journal too.”

 

“So do they have any sort of special meaning?” she asked.

 

“Hm, let’s see here. These three are combinations of multiple symbols” he gestured to the right side of the lift frame, then pointed to the first inscription. “The one on top is an upward triangle which is the symbol for fire, and inside of it the circle with the dot in the center is the symbol for gold.” He moved his finger down to the second one “This one is a bit odd. Moon is the symbol for silver, and the downward facing triangle is the symbol for water, but the square that encases the two I’m not familiar with. I’ve only seen the square used as part of the glyph that supposedly creates the philosopher’s stone.” Then finally, moving his finger to the final one “This circle with the arrow is the symbol for iron, and the upside down triangle with the line through it is the symbol for earth.” he finished. 

 

“What about the three on the solid doors?” his sister asked.

 

“Oh! Those are on the cover of the Aureolus books! They represent the chemicals of mercury, salt, and sulfur. They also have a second spiritual meaning to them, representing the three aspects of what makes one a person. Mercury is the spirit, salt is the body, and sulfur is the soul.” he squinted trying to make out the writing beneath the symbols “ _Cirenge_? That I have no idea what it means, it sounds like a name so maybe it’s the person who wrote these things on here.”

 

“Okay, so some guy basically just drew a bunch of pictures about chemicals and metals? That’s it?” Mabel asked, looking unimpressed.

 

He scratched his head then gave her a shrug. “It looks like it. I’d have to look through my books to find out if the arrangement is supposed to be a ritual of some sort but regardless it doesn’t matter. Alchemy doesn’t have any magical power; the philosopher’s stone would have been a thing if it did, and chemistry ended up replacing it for that reason.” 

 

“I’m more interested about where this thing leads to.” Dipper reached out to try and open the scissor gate, but it wouldn’t budge an inch. 

 

“Yeah I already tried opening the thing. I hacked at it with every mining tool I have, didn’t even make a scratch. Even the blowtorch didn’t mark it!” his sister told him. “As much as I’d love to see if the place it leads to holds any pre-collapse goodies, we should leave it alone for now. If we even managed to get it open, there’s no guarantee it would be operational. If it’s electrical powered we’d never be able to access it. If it’s manual we could use it, but more than likely the cranks would be rusted, so we’d need something to remove it.”

 

Dipper sighed, feeling slightly disappointed. “Yeah you’re right. We should be focusing on getting construction for the house started.”

 

Mabel squished her cheeks together in excitement. “Yeah! It’s gonna be so much fun, hard work, but fun! Few people can say they’ve had their house custom built.” she swung an arm around her brother’s shoulders, leading them away from the tree. “Don’t look so down about the lift bro; those nomants we met said they should be coming back to Silent Line around this time, it has been a few months. When we run into them maybe we can work something out and they’ll help us get it open. Maybe even get to see what’s inside since they always carry all kinds of tech.” 

 

“Yeah, that’s true. Ugh, Mabel your optimism is way too infectious.” he laughed.

 

“You say that like it’s a bad thing! C’mere, gonna give you all my Mabel germs!” she squished him closer to her side and began giving him a noogie. 

 

“Augh! Oh noooooo! Not the dreaded Mabelitis!” he mock screamed in horror, slipping out of his sister’s grasp and running away from her.

 

Both of them chased each other around like they were kids again. They eventually had to stop so they could begin building the foundation to their new house, but even then they managed to turn the work into a game. 

 

As they laughed and goofed around well into the night, they remained blissfully unaware of the eye that had opened up in the square glyph of the lift frame, watching them intently.

 

\-------------------

 

A masked figure knocked with intent on the wooden door, facial expression beneath the mask looking determined. One of his hands tightly held onto a polaroid photo. 

 

After a few moments, the door opened up. “Huh? What’re you doin’ here kid? You’re back awfully late from your route, did somethin’ happen?” 

 

“Uhm, yes you could say that. It’s good news however; do you have a moment to sit down to talk? Your brother should hear this as well if he’s not busy.” 

 

The man raised an eyebrow skeptically, then moved aside to let the masked person inside the house. “Make yerself comfy, I’m gonna go drag that hermit out of his hole.” 

 

As soon as the man left, he made his way into the kitchen, sitting down on one of the squishy chairs near the dinner table. He put the photo face down on the table, not wanting to spoil the surprise immediately. 

 

He fiddled around with the clasps of the mask, pulling it off to reveal the face of a young man. His hair was dyed a dark navy color, pulled up into a bun held together by a drawing compass. From far away, his skin have been mistaken for that of a normal human tone. Upon closer look, one could see that it had just the slightest hint of a light sky blue color, and whenever light caught it shimmering scales could be seen. Where the eyes should have been there was only the indentations of sockets, hidden by a patterned blindfold, a stylistic choice. There was however a single monolid eye on his forehead, icy blue in color.

 

He sighed in content, glad to be out of that stuffy thing. He heard two sets of footsteps behind him. The two older twins he worked for appeared in his range of sight, sitting down across the table from him.

 

“Kryptos? Stan tells me you have some good news to report?” asked the less gruff of the two.

 

“Ah, yes. First I have to ask, how much do you remember about what happened at Gravity?” he said.

 

Both twins immediately grew tense at the question. Stan’s expression took on a stony look. “I remember some bastards murdered Shermie’s kid and his kid’s wife, and the grandkids went down with ‘em.”

 

Kryptos nodded. “The last time we were able to check on the Pines family was 12 years ago; as you know, that so called ‘Alpha Council’ decided to specifically ban our nomant group because we carried tech with us, something that the citizens are not allowed to own. Several months after our last visit, we heard rumors among the nomant groups still allowed in Gravity, that the Pines family had been murdered because of some power related custom. From what we had heard, it sounded like no one was left alive.” Both the older twins nodded with slight impatience, already familiar with what he was saying. 

 

“However, a few months ago just as we were about to enter Silent Line, we ran into a nomant group who had just come back from Gravity. We did the customary exchange of news, and found out from them that someone in the village had killed the pet pig belonging to the Omega family in a particularly gruesome way. This family had endured living there for over a decade, but the leader of the group thought that after that incident they would finally go into self-exile. I asked for more details on the family, and found out that it consisted of just a pair of siblings, twins to be precise.”

 

Both men sitting across from him immediately turned alert at that.

 

“When we parted with that group, all four of us agreed to take a short break from our route, just to be sure it was them. I camouflaged and made my way through the stream as fast as I could. I got there just in time to see the two siblings crossing the bridge. Problem was I wasn’t able to get a good look at them. So when I reported back to my group, we immediately headed into the forest towards the direction they had been traveling. We ended up walking through a patch of soft earth that gave away beneath us and kept us trapped for a while. Luckily, one of the siblings was actually around the area, and came to get us out when we screamed for help. They let us spend the night at their camp, and when we parted the next morning they let me take a photo of them.”

 

He flipped the polaroid over, pushing it towards the two men. On the bottom in small letters was written **Mabel and Dipper Pines, Age 25. Taken in Silent Line, Oasis; 65 A.G.C./C.E. 2095.**

 

The two men stared at the smiling faces. Stan looked like he was desperately trying not to cry, and Ford had his hand over his mouth in disbelief.

 

”Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Ford, they’re still alive!” Stan yelled, grabbing his brother by the shoulders and shaking him with an elated smile on his face. Ford smiled back, still too choked up to speak. 

 

Kryptos watched the exchange happily, a warm feeling in his chest. It was so rare to see the two men smile. 

 

“From the conversations we had with the two, we know that they’re planning on building a home in the forest once they find a suitable place. We just got back today; I already passed the information to Doc and Beelz, and both of them said they’ll be using every surveillance source in the forest to find their location. I apologize for not getting back to you as soon as we found out-we were already quite behind schedule, and we know you want us to keep up our reputation for being punctual with the towns on our route.”

 

Stan chuckled and reached forward to ruffle Kryptos’s hair. “It’s no problem kiddo. They’re in one of the safest places of the post-collapse world, and even if something were to come up, the two of them look like they can handle themselves.” 

 

Ford cleared his throat, finally regaining his voice. “I want to say thanks to you and the other members of your group. Your work has always been excellent, but this is especially impressive. The fact that you took the time to investigate so thoroughly was an incredibly kind thing to do. I’m assuming the rest are looking over profits; once you all are done with that take a week a off, you’ve more than earned it.” 

 

Kryptos stood up and slightly bowed his head in a sign of respect. “Thank you sir. I’m assuming that once they are found there is going to be an attempt to get in contact with them?”

 

“Damn right there’ll be. While Beelz and Doc are surveilling we’ll be cookin’ up a strategy to approach them. They’ve lived their whole lives in that shitty excuse for a village, so we’ll need to go ‘bout this slowly. There are so many things they will end up discovering about the world outside; don’t wanna scare them off or make their heads explode” Stan chuckled.

 

“On behalf of my crew, we wanted to know if we could actually assist you with that. Your great-niece and great-nephew left quite an impression on us. They’ve grown up into wonderful people despite the horrid things they probably had to endure in that place.”

 

“Ooooh, goin’ soft on me Kryptos? Nah, just messin’ with ya; don’t worry, we’ll find a way to have you guys help. Now go on, help your other team members finish up and get to enjoying your time off.” Stan said. 

 

Kryptos gave his thanks again, leaving the two to begin work on their new project.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Har har har har har~ Hella excited to finally get to this part of the story. Things from here on out are gonna progressively start getting crazier >:3 Also, the year this takes place in is finally revealed with the IRL system we use, so I can now reveal that the dating system A.G.C stands for After Great Collapse.
> 
>  **Chapter 3 Trivia:** I realize I should have probably elaborated a bit on this, but since the flashback was in the form of a dream sequence I felt like a lot of exposition wouldn't sit right in there. Alpha families set up arranged marriages between their children, so the family line can stay so called "pure". It is customary and socially acceptable for both Alpha partners to take one or several concubines from the lower Beta families and the Omega family when one is present. When an Omega family is present they are a prime target, as they have barely any rights, and unlike Beta families if they are picked by an Alpha they are not allowed to refuse the offer. Obviously Dipdop don't give a fuck tho.  
>  Khat is a drug which is still kind of legal in the US (it's weird, look it up if it interests you). It's found in places like Ethiopia, Somalia, and other African countries; however, the biggest producer is Yemen, where consumption of it has become somewhat of an important social custom. It made its way over to the US by people who like to experiment with lesser known, still legal drugs (*coughs*like me*coughs*) I personally haven't tried it yet, but have a few friends who've shared their experiences with it. Lower doses act as a stimulant, higher doses act more like an opiate. Similar to coca leaf, it can be chewed to stave off hunger, which is Dipper's reason of consuming it, especially as a kid when he had access to much smaller quantities of food.  
> Powdered rose hips, cowage seed pods, and fig sap/juice are all potential skin irritants. Urushiol is the chemical found in poison ivy and poison sumac which causes the famous reaction associated with touching those plants. Any type of super pure, high grade essential oil when put directly on the skin causes burning; a lot of it can give you chemical burns. Mint oil, with the additional menthol which is also a potential irritant, would send someone into a serious world of pain.  
> I know, jabs at Twilight are overdone, but I just couldn't help myself xD Mabel actually isn't 100% correct in her observation. Dipper actually has a crush on the _author_ of the book, not the character whose life the author is chronicling. ;)  
>  Dipper already did most of the work explaining the whole shebang about alchemy glyphs. I'll mention his texts describe western symbols. Alchemy was prevalent in many countries, and as such symbols for the same components have many variations. Even within western alchemy there are a ton of derivatives.  
> The canon design for Kryptos is based on the Masonic square and compass symbol. While I was trying to come up with a look for him I really wanted to incorporate the drawing compass in his outfit; don't know why but I really like it. I imagined it would made a decent pair of hair-chopsticks, so I rolled with that idea :)


	4. Apparently, Lifts Can Give Out Quests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins finish building their dream home. Minds kept busy by the non-stop travel through the forest, it finally sinks in that they are now free from the place which ostracized and oppressed them throughout most of their life. When evening comes, as Mabel gets ready to start dinner, they are interrupted by an unexpected guest who ends up...kind of giving them a quest?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Edit:** Technically I posted this on the date marked, but I did so around 4am when I was loopy with sleepiness, so I'm coming back to make edits. This chapter was originally supposed to have action scenes at the end; when I write I tend to lose track of things and my eyes almost popped out when I saw that by the time I hit 9 pages on Google Docs, I had just gotten to the part where the scene that would transition to action. I chose to split the chapter to keep it a little organized and as a result this is again a dialogue heavy chapter. However, I was in the mood for writing something fun, so I hope at least someone out there likes my weird sense of humor.
> 
>  **Chapter Warnings:** A lot more swearing than usual, mention of Dipper's real name (I think by now everyone knows what it is, but just in case I'll put this here). Besides that, it's a pretty tame chapter.

Mabel let out a deep exhale as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

 

“Oh man bro, we are so AWESOME. Done in a week, can you believe that?” she grinned toward her brother, who looked just as sweaty as she did.

 

Dipper smiled back at her. Hands on his hips, he stood back to admire their finished work.

 

While Mabel was educated like her brother, she always claimed that he was the smarter one out of the pair. He couldn’t disagree more; they were just talented in vastly different areas. Proof of his sister’s thinking ability was in the home they had just finished building. The entire plan for it was designed by her, he was just the assistant.

 

Together they build a yurt style duplex home. Mabel had designed the upper floor for Dipper since he liked to stay up late at night to stargaze. There was a ladder inside his area which led to a seating area on the roof. The bottom floor was hers, since while she enjoyed stargazing as well, she wasn’t the biggest fan of heights. Plus, she actually went to bed at a reasonable time unlike her insomniac of a brother.

 

Using different plants Dipper had gathered from the meadow and surrounding forest, he mixed up dyes in all sorts of colors to decorate their house. Mabel had painted a big star on the outer wall of her floor, while Dipper decided on putting the alchemical glyphs he’d seen on the lift. He didn’t know why, but he just felt a strange sense of comfort from them.

 

He watched as his sister walked over to their pile of supplies, grabbing her shirt to wipe at her face and neck. “Ugh, man now that we’re settled I could SO go for a bath.”

 

“Ditto. Most of the supplies are already put away, why don’t we head down to the pond and finish putting the rest away tomorrow?” Dipper asked.

 

Mabel nodded. “Sounds good! I’ll take the opportunity to gather wood too while we’re there since tonight I’m on dinner duty.” She headed inside her part of the house, rummaging around for a clean set of clothes and her tools.

 

 _We’ve already got a surplus of plant materials, I think I’ll bring one of the Aureolus volumes to read while she does that._ Dipper thought to himself.

 

He climbed the ladder up to his floor, grabbing what he needed before coming back down; his sister already waiting for him.

 

They made their way through the meadow, then parted the bushes into the forest. The way to the pond was a short walk, and minutes later the twins were happily submerged in the refreshing water.

 

A serene silence settled around them, both focused on washing off the accumulated layers of filth and sweat on their skin. As they both began to wash their hair with Mabel’s herbal vinegar, she spoke up.

 

“So. I know we haven’t really talked about uh, ‘heavy’ stuff since y’know, we’ve been moving non-stop since leaving the village. But I wanted to get a few things off my chest, I guess..” she paused as she dunked her head beneath the water to rinse off the vinegar, resurfacing shortly after.

 

“We’ve got a home with a gorgeous view, rich in resources. We ain’t going to go hungry here. There’s no one we have to bow to. No one to steal our stuff, call us names; we don’t have to sleep with our weapons anymore or worry about some Alpha dickweed trying to turn us into sex slaves.” she giggled softly as she watched tadpoles curiously inspect her feet. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that the realization that we’re free kinda just hit me today. Even when mom and dad were alive, we still didn’t have this level of freedom. How are things on your end bro?” she asked.

 

Dipper was silent, needing to think for a moment. He hadn’t even thought about their newfound freedom; his mind consumed by traveling, reading, and then the construction. His eyes widened as an influx of thoughts and ideas began to make their way around his head. There were _so_ many things they could do now, the possibilities were endless.

 

“Shit Mabel, it just sank in for me.” he chuckled. “I’d think I’d like to live a few calm years here, but imagine; once we get bored of the serenity, we can finally explore the rest of the world like we wanted to when we were kids. Discover the horrors and mysteries of post-collapse America.”

 

She gave a huge smile at that. “We’re definitely still going by ‘The Mystery Twins’ right?”

 

“Definitely.”

 

\----------------------------

 

_Guillermo Aureolus._

_One of history’s greatest renaissance men, yet his name is almost completely unknown; only those who are deeply involved in research of occultism may run into snippets of his name. Or of course, if you dear reader, have the luck to find this series of books I have written. I only printed three sets of this series. Now you may ask, “Sdakg, why would you do that?” After all, if one decides to pour hours of research into writing a man’s biography, surely the author must want said man to become well renowned?_

_Not so fast dear reader. Yes, this is a tale of a very interesting man’s life; a man who certainly deserves recognition. However, just like with the famous Abramelin text, a vast amount of secrets and knowledge from Aureolus’s personal magic system are contained within. While a fine mage in his own right, comparing the abilities of Abramelin to Aureolus is like comparing the intensity of the flame of a candle to an unstoppable wildfire._

_If you have pursued and gotten your hands on these books, it means you are worthy to know of this great magic. While I’d love for the name of Sir Aureolus to be in every world history text ever made, making knowledge of such powerful magic public would cause disaster. Only those with the tenacity and extreme thirst to know everything there is to know deserve to be bestowed these secrets._

_So before we begin, I say congratulations to you dear reader. You have found a metaphorical treasure chest; make use of your spoils wisely._

 

_Like most magic users, Aureolus was born not fully of human descent. My most credible of sources tells me that he actually was never human at all, but gained a human side because of a series of laws related to cosmic politics._

_Powerful creatures share some similarities with humans; they are people, sentient beings. They have personalities, likes, dislikes, and the ability to change over time. Most human beings do not know this, as evidenced by the mostly stagnant popular religious beliefs._

_These creatures come in all shades of moralities, as that is what makes a well balanced cosmos. However, if a powerful creature becomes too out of control and disrupts the balance, there are entities whose job it is to subdue them in order to bring the balance back._

_Subduing these creatures normally involves a punishment of some sort. The most common one is exile from their home, to either serve a certain time sentence or complete a trial of tasks intended to serve as a guiding lesson to prevent future imbalances._

_Before he was born as Aureolus, he was one of these creatures. I have not been able to find out anything about him from this time; what kind of creature he was, his role, his name, not even the crime he committed. All that I have been able to find is information on his terrestrial life._

_When powerful creatures are exiled, they are normally sent in vessels with limited power. Serving their sentence as a half-human is therefore common._

_Aureolus was born in an unknown location in Spain as a xanino, the product of a xana and a human man of Moor descent. Since xanas cannot produce milk, their children are changelings; the xanas replace human babies with their own so they may survive._

 

_These changelings also grow abnormally fast; within one year, Aureolus had the appearance of a man barely into his twenties._

_His beginnings were not a happy one as the parents figured out what Aureolus was by the 4 month mark. Cast out of the home he was a nomad for quite some time, making his way throughout Europe. His luck changed when he got to Austria. He ran into an alchemist, a fellow just as odd as him, looking for an apprentice--_

 

“Hey dippin’ dot! Done with wood gathering, let’s get going so I can start cookin’ us some grub for tonight!” hearing Mabel’s voice snapped Dipper’s attention away from the paragraph he’d been reading. Putting in a bookmark, he stood and followed his sister through the path back to the meadow.

 

Parting through the bushes, the meadow greeted them, a sight which now was slowly registering as ‘home’ in both of their minds. Mabel made her way to the cooking pit, beginning to build the layers to a fire, while Dipper went to grab ingredients for her from the deeply dug hole they were using as a makeshift cooling cellar.

 

By the time the fire was at perfection, night had fallen. Once the younger twin had handed his sister the assorted ingredients, she had shooed him off, telling him to relax since it was her night for cooking. He decided to walk a ways from the light cast off by the fire, finding a nice patch of dark meadow to watch the sky while he waited for the food to cook.

 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this relaxed-or felt his senses so sharp and clear of the fogginess. Closing his eyes, he let himself fall into an almost trance-like state.

 

It was the perfect type of summer night. A light breeze would caress his skin from time to time, carrying the sweet aroma of magnolia flowers. The tall, wild grass bent beneath him cushioned him comfortably, lacking the prickliness of regular cut grass. He heard the breeze rustling tree leaves, the crackling fire. A dinav was singing somewhere, his sister humming along with its tune. He felt so small, yet so big at the same time; overwhelmed in the best way.

 

So deep in his state of complete serenity, when the booming sound of grinding metal resounded throughout the meadow, he shot up feeling like he was at the brink of a heart attack.

 

“What the **FUCK** was **THAT**?!” He heard his sister yell. He scrambled to stand, running back towards the house.

 

The sound stopped, replaced by a series of clicks and what sounded like the squeak of door hinges in desperate need of an oiling.

 

“ _Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmkay!_ Mic check one two, one two, do I have a set of twins out there? I cometh in peace! God **DAMN** it! Can’t see shit from this dusty ass retro setup.” A distorted male voice made its way in the air.

 

Both siblings looked at each other, confused expressions on their face. Who the hell was that? _Where_ the hell were they was a better question probably, as they saw no one in the meadow. As quietly as they could, they went to fetch their weapons.

 

When they came back, they saw the giant pine tree emitting a dim light, coming from the area where the lift was located.

 

“Okay, look. If you guys are out there, I know this is all very weird, but give a guy a chance alright? Come over to the lift so I can face you properly to chat. I swear I’m friendly!” the voice called out again.

 

“Riiiiiiiight. A lift inside of a tree with graffitied alchemy glyphs was was weird enough, but it also glows and talks? Fat chance I’m putting myself anywhere near you.” Dipper snarkily remarked.

 

“ _Ugh_ , for **FUCKS** sake! I’m not a talking lift! Well, actually more like I kind of, sort of live in--you know what? No nevermind it’s way too complicated to explain right now and I got shit to do. _We_ got shit to do kiddos. Alright, you don’t trust me; fine, fine, that’s fair. Let me ask you this: Do the names ‘Stanley and Stanford Pines’ mean anything to you?”

 

“...Those were our great uncles names, right? Mom and dad didn’t talk much about them, all I remember is they died before we were born. There was something weird to their deaths as there were no graves for them in the cemetery.” Mabel said as she turned to look at Dipper.

 

“Correct! Ever think that _maybe_ there were no graves ‘cause they’re _still alive_?”

 

Dipper looked toward the tree with narrowed eyes, suspicious yet still curious. “What exactly are you trying to imply here?”

 

The distorted voice let out a noise somewhat resembling an annoyed huff. “Uh, _DUH_. Exactly that! That they’re still alive. I’m a sort of... _employee_ of theirs. They thought you kids were dead for years. Then several weeks back, one of their nomant employees waltzes back in from a route, picture of you two in hand with your names, ages, and location. The geezers were fucking thrilled, so they immediately started working on a search for you. I actually saw you both as soon as you arrived, but I thought I’d let you get cozy first before showing up.”

 

“...Oh. Camon was the one who took a picture of us! He works for our great uncles?!” Mabel exclaimed.

 

This time, the voice gave what sounded like a snort. “Yeah, yeah _‘Camon’_ was the one with your picture. He actually was the one who sent me out to look around Silent Line.”

 

Dipper could see the stars in Mabel’s eyes, but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling something was fishy. “I’m still not really convinced we should trust you. Do you have some sort of proof to what you say?”

 

“Ahhh, I see you’re the paranoid one of the two. _Hmmm_ let’s see…..ah yes! I have information on the two of you which could have only been acquired if I was close with your great uncles. Ford left you both a box of things to be opened at the age of 13; containing his journal, and a complete set of Guillermo Aureolus’s biography. Two family heirlooms as well; a pine tree emblem poison ring, and an upper arm cuff etched with the symbol of a shooting star. That, and Dipper’s real name is Mason.” he snickered.

 

His sister joined in the snickering. “Oh _man_  I almost forgot about your real name.”

 

The younger twin glared at his sister, then let out a defeated sigh. “Alright, let’s go see what the magic talking lift has to say to us. Damn, I never expected to have a sentence like that ever come out of my mouth.”

 

They both walked over to the tree, making their way around to the side that held the lift entrance. They both jumped back slightly, completely caught off guard. On the side of the frame which held no glyphs was now an open compartment containing a dimly lit screen. A mildly irritated looking face stared back at them.

 

“Uhm?” His sister said, at loss for words.

 

They both nearly startled again when the face rolled its eyes at them. “Yes, yes, please _do_ keep staring, I know I’m quite the handsome man.” it sarcastically remarked. “Okay, I remember Kr- _Camon_ telling me you guys are from one of the really ass-backward settlements, so the reaction is understandable. Ford told me your family is well educated, so I take it you can at least guess what this compartment is?”

 

“Well...I would say some sort of computer data system, but you also look like a sentient AI.” Dipper replied.

 

“Mmmm, quite close. This little screen used to be a PIN pad; those who worked down underground would put in a number combination to get in. Now it’s just another one of my many peepholes around the forest. And no I am not an AI of any kind; by the geezer’s orders, I’m not to say anything about what I am. Even if I could, it would take me several hours to explain the complexities of how I came to be in this state.”

 

Both siblings looked at each other, silently communicating their absolute state of bewilderment at the situation.

 

“‘Kay, I’m gonna ignore whatever freaky twin telepathy thing you guys got going on, and just get straight to the point. First, a much needed introduction: You may call me Beelz. As I mentioned, I kind of work for your great uncles, and sometimes do tasks for the group of nomants they oversee. Obviously because of familial bonds and blah blah blah, they would like to meet you. Problem is, the place where they live isn’t necessarily accessible by normal means. That’s another one of the things I’m not allowed to talk about, before you ask.”

 

“Why are they keeping information from us? They may be alive, you may know them, but this is still coming off as really sketchy to me.” Dipper said.

 

Beelz’s face morphed into an unamused face emoji. “Look, I know kid. It’s not out of ill will that they’re keeping stuff from you both; it’s more like they want to be the ones to explain the how and why of things in person. Apparently I’m ‘abrasive’ when it comes to the art of elucidation, so that’s also _probably_ another reason they want me to keep my trap shut.” he said.

 

“Alright, moving on. This lift leads to an underground tunnel which was under construction, say, maybe 20 or so years ago? It was meant to connect this meadow to the place your great uncles live in; the area is rich in lots of different resources, so easy access would have come in handy.”

 

His face changed into a cartoonish looking skull. “The crew that worked for them were aware that their jobs were risky. There’s pockets of assorted dump sites and landfills around Silent Line; hard to believe with how well stuff grows around here, huh? Those places are thankfully very, very deep underground. This one here in particular is a hell of a doozy, as it was definitely poorly managed pre-collapse. It’s got all the components of the great American post-apocalyptic holy trinity: radioactive waste, medical waste, and of course, decades’ worth of putrefying garbage. The crew owned the best protection gear available; Ford has managed to invent suits that outrank the pre-collapse ones by miles. What they _didn’t_ know was that the area had become home to a shitload of the not so cuddly kind of critters. So while the crew was protected from every kind of environmental hazard possible, they didn’t bring weapons with them, since all the places they’d worked in before were devoid of anything unfriendly. You can probably guess how that turned out for them.”

 

 _Oooooooh boy._ The twins simultaneously had a feeling they knew where this was going.

 

“Okay, pause for a moment. I’m gonna take a wild guess that we’re somehow going to have to be involved in getting the tunnel finished and/or clearing the things out?” Mabel asked.

 

Beelz now displayed himself as a dancing stick figure. “Whoop, whoop! Right on target lady. Well today y'all are just gonna work on the creatures. Lucky for you, I’ve been keeping tabs on this place for several years. My abilities are limited but I’ve managed to keep the population low enough that if you take out as many of the things as you can while you’re down there, their numbers will drop to the point where they won’t be able to repopulate, thus eventually dying out. Not that we’ll have to wait for that to happen, as I’ve got a crew coming in to finish that tunnel, and they’re _hella_ prepared to deal with whatever stragglers are left over.”

 

Dipper shifted anxiously around on his feet. “Family is important, and I do want to meet our great uncles, but why can’t we just wait for this crew to show up? Mabel and I can put up a fight, but we’ve gone up against people, not aggressive mutated animals.”

 

Shifting back to emojis, the screen displayed a thinking face. “Well, where the crew is traveling from, they’ll be here in a month tops. Jerusalem firestarters can breed up to three generations in that time, and out of all the things crawling down there, those are the ones I have the hardest time picking off. Also not gonna lie to you kiddos, I _am_ curious to see how well you do in a fight. I’ve heard you talk about wanting to eventually see what the rest of the country is like. If you want to do that you’re gonna have to get used to fighting big, ugly things, cause outside of Oasis, the world full of them. Hell, the muties down there are bunnies compared to some of the abominations crawling along the beaches in Long Coast.”

 

Beelz put back on his original face, this time displaying a soft expression. “Don’t worry kiddos, I’ll be here to hold your hand for your first mutant animal hunt. Plus, remembering that first conversation; To satisfy your curiosity and offer a bribe, there _are_ some pre-collapse goodies down there. The protection equipment is all intact, and I have access to all of the wired parts of the system that still work.”

 

Mabel, who had been unusually quiet, turned to Dipper. “So this sounds risky, but I think the reward is definitely worth it. Besides the stuff we can scav down there, if that place has electricity that means our grunkles both own and work with tech.” she paused to think for a moment, then let out a gleeful squeal. “ **OH MY GOD**. Dipdop, you know what this means? This means we’re going on a frickin’ fantasy style _quest_. Characters whose skills balance each other’s out? Check. Quest given by weird magical talking thingamajig-being? Check. Quest involving the slaying of dangerous creatures? _Motherfuckin’ check_!” She pumped her fist in the air, whooping as she sprinted back to the house, likely with the intent to get her gear.

 

Dipper stared at the spot where his sister had been standing just a moment ago, completely flabbergasted.

 

Beelz, a sentient AI-like thing lives in the wires or electricity or some shit, _inside_ the lift which is located _inside the fucking tree in the middle of their meadow_. Their great uncles are actually alive, the nomants they ran into months back actually work for them- **wait** , and this Beelz guy has been watching them like a fucking creep for an entire week!

 

“Mabel, if we die I _swear_ I will have my ghost haunt you for life. Even if we both die, I’ll still find a way to haunt you anyway.”

 

Well, so much for a night of relaxing in the meadow before eating dinner. Wait. Dinner?

 

“ **SHIT!** I forgot I left the food on the fire! **_Nooooooooooo!_** ” he heard his sister wail in the distance.

 

Still better than being enslaved to a rank. Way better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Beelz? I normally don't dig fanfics with OCs since half the time they're not well fleshed out. However, while I was doing the worldbuilding, he ended up being created and I felt like he fit really well among the canon cast. No, he's not Bill, although they're definitely both assholes haha. Beelz will be an important part of a certain character's backstory, but comes later. There won't be many OCs in this story; Beelz will the only recurring one, the others will either have short scenes or will be mentioned-only characters. Sorry about another chapter with a lot of ambiguity, but everything will be come to fruition. There are reasons behind everything ;D
> 
>  **Trivia for Chapter 4:** This should have probably been put in the first chapter; the way you pronounce Sdakg's name is su-da-keg. I completely pulled it out of my ass, so if that actually is a real name I did not know.  
>  Before shampoo existed, one of the many ways which people would wash their hair was by using vinegar, putting herbs in the mixture to give it some perfume.  
> At first I thought the grunkles making the twins take care of clearing the mutants was kind of harsh. Especially since they haven't met yet. But then I thought back to my favorite Ford scene in the show; the one where he gives Mabel a crossbow, then realizing he hasn't been to that dimension in a while, he assumes it's okay to give children weapons (lol). I thought to myself that yeah, Stan would be busy handling the nomant business, so Ford would probably be overseeing the more technical tasks. Especially since the twins are adults here, he would assume it to be 100% okay to have them go up against mutant animals xD  
> I grew up reading a lot about Spaniard mythology, and decided to incorporate some in the story. A xana is a sort of water nymph. Depending on the region there's stories about them either being really kind or really mean. A xanino is the actual term for a half-human half-xana child, the whole bit about why they're changelings also part of the mythology. I don't remember how fast they were supposed to grow; I designated a year for this story, but I actually think they became fully grown adults in 6 months. Either way, they grew into adults in a ridiculously short amount of time.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow my Tumblr @ [your-mutant-girlfriend](https://your-mutant-girlfriend.tumblr.com/) for fic updates, fanfic art/concept sketches, other fandom art/writing, or if you just wanna be friends and nerd out about any fandoms we have in common :)


End file.
